My continuation of Sharon Astyk’s now-completed “Independence Days” project (June-Aug 2022), which offered a framework for recognising how we’re building resiliency, community, and accountability that will make our lives better now and in the future. Many of Sharon’s categories are (or could be) related to gardening, so it seems to fit here on this blog. Equally, none of them has to do with gardening. They’re all multifaceted.
- Plant something: plant, start something
I finished both the Real Happiness meditation challenge (Sharon Salzberg) and my accompanying blogging project for Feb. on Tuesday. Since then, I’ve taken a bit of a break from the computer. I also took the last piece of the taxes to our tax guy, on Wednesday, and we’re almost ready to submit them.
I ordered some veggie and flower starts from Ayn at Foundwell Farm on Tuesday, for pick-up in May or later: 2 Black Prince Heirloom Tomato, 3 Sweet Basil, 3 Nasturtium, and 1 Flat Italian Parsley. Hoping to pick up a couple of beach plums (Prunus maritima) and a couple of Purple Flowering Raspberry (Rubus odoratus) plants from her, too.
And I ordered some native plants from Bagley Pond Native Perennials on Monday, to be picked up in May or June: 3 quarts Blue Stemmed Goldenrod (Solidago caesia), 1 gallon New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus americanus), 5 quarts Common Wood Sedge (Carex blanda), and 3 quarts Nodding Onion (Allium cernuum).
I started a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle on Thursday evening and finished it Sat. evening. So colourful and fun!
I also started the March 2023 Nature Photos Google album and sent the link to people who have requested it.
- Harvest something: harvest, forage or glean
My permaculture group “gleaned” some permaculture/gardening books from a friend who just moved to assisted living this week. I have them in the back of my car to look through and list this coming week.
- Preserve something: food or local community resource
Preserved local resources: ate inside local bakery on Thursday afternoon and on Saturday morning during the big snowstorm; bought some things at the local co-op on Wednesday; bought something at the local bookstore on Thursday.
Preserved sanity: Well. I’m waiting for walkable trails (could be a couple months). Husband snowshoed Sunday, after the big (14″) new snow. I treadmilled Monday and Sunday (5.5 miles). Took a couple of in-town walks, including a longer one (3+ miles) on Wednesday and shorter ones on Thurs. and Sat.
- Waste Not: reduce waste, reuse, salvage, repair, give away to an actual person
Husband is working on creating a decent pair of work jeans from scraps of other (worse) work jeans.
Snowblower (13 yrs old) broke most of the way through clearing the driveway (of 14 new inches of snow, did I mention that) on Saturday. Husband took apart snowblower and found the broken thing (the worm gear inside the auger had been partially ground to a fine gold dust), ordered a replacement, and will be working on that on Tues. or Wed. this week.
- Want Not: food and emergency supplies, increase economic security, reorganize to use/waste less
Just the usual keeping food, health & cleaning supplies, cat supplies, etc., well stocked.
- Eating The Food: shop the pantry, new recipes, creative use of leftovers, help feed others
Made that new shrimp bisque recipe again and got two dinners from it. Had leftovers of one sort or another on Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday.
- Caregiving/Mutual Aid: contribute to community support systems, volunteer, mutual aid, advocate
Helped a friend leave her home for the last time and move to assisted living on Monday.
- Skill up: particularly if they help us get along, grow, make our new reality better
Husband is skilling up on fixing the snowblower and on more Java programming. We both got a lot out of the latest Birding Basics webinar (thru Maine Audubon) on Tuesday, Birding By Ear. Re-reading Deppe’s The Resilient Gardener after 10 years is providing useful reminders, tips, details, questions.
- Tend & Maintain: cleaning stuff, replacing supplies, car or bike maintenance, stuff to prevent failure/breaking/hassle down the line
We organised, labelled, and tossed some cables (camera, phone, laptop, chargers) and other tech gadgetry on Tuesday. I worked out four times (4 hours) this week, plus the treadmilling. Husband is researching getting an inexpensive spare key for our 21st-century vehicle. I had another negative Covid antigen test (no symptoms but a couple of small in-person events upcoming) on Thursday morning.
- Winter is coming: making our relationships, family life, home, community, immediate surroundings, jobs better for a long and hard upcoming year or few years
I hosted salon at my house on Friday, with four of us in person and one on Zoom. Permaculture met on Thursday on Zoom, 8 of us. We had dinner with a friend at another friend’s on Thursday night (for one friend’s 87th birthday celebration). We ran into a friend while doing errands on Thursday and caught up a bit. Kept in touch with a sister via text this week.
While helping a friend move to assisted living on Monday we spent some time with a couple of other friends who were also helping.
We had 18-20 inches of snow this week, on Tuesday and Friday/Saturday, and additionally some light snow on Monday and a few inches of mixed precipitation on Thursday. Pretty wintry here at the moment. Still, we live in hope and order garden seeds, plants, and supplies.
